Batman: The Long Halloween TPB Review

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Released in fall of 1996 and running through the bulk of 1997, “The Long Halloween” was a Batman mini-series that came out of left-field to captivate comic readers with the biggest mystery since Alan Moore had The Comedian tossed out of a window in the opening pages of “The Watchmen”. The mystery of the “Who is Holiday?” (a murderer who killed once a month and always on a holiday) was one that gripped Batman readers and was fodder for both the internet and Wizard Magazine for over a year until the shocking ending.

Written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sales, “The Long Halloween” is a complex story with many twists and turns and storyline plots that make for a complex tale of betrayal and murder. Using the ending of Frank Miller’s “Batman Year One” as their starting point, “The Long Halloween” continues the story of Bruce Wayne as a rookie super-hero who willingly enters into a pact with Commissioner Gordan and crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent to bring down the Falcone crime family. Led by the crime syndicate’s leader/patriarch Carmine “The Roman” Falcone, the Falcone Syndicate rules Gotham City with an iron fist even with the sudden rise in costumed super-villains running roughshod over Gotham City. But the trio’s plans are hampered by a lone madman, a murderous gunman (or is it gunwoman?) who is leaving a trail of dead mobsters across Gotham City. Every month, on a holiday, a mobster is murdered with a trinket (related to the holiday on which the murder took place) left as a calling card by the killer.

As Batman begins to investigate the murders (which begins with the murders of several members of the Falcone Crime Syndicate), “The Roman” has his own evil scheme in the works. Falcone seeks to “do business” with Gotham City’s top bank and the only thing standing in his way is board of director member Bruce Wayne, who refuses to aid “The Roman” in his latest venture. Desperate to force Wayne to bend to the crime boss’s will, “The Roman” will enlist the growing army of costumed super-villains to force Wayne to do the mobster’s bidding. But one rogue won’t fall in line, as the master thief Catwoman has a rather single-minded vendetta against the Falcone crime syndicate which involves her stealing everything she can steal of value from “The Roman” to finance her lifestyle as rich socialite Selina Kyle. Of course, Selina’s vendetta takes a serious tone when she finds herself falling love with Bruce Wayne, which makes their night-time battles as Batman and Catwoman take on a more serious tone when Batman considers the notion that Catwoman could in fact be “Holiday”.

And of course there is Harvey Dent, who’s transformation into the villainous Two-Face drives the second half of the story. While it is over-shadowed by the “Who is Holiday?” mystery, Loeb’s take on the origin of Two-Face is well done. Loeb wisely plays up the friendship between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Harvey Dent/Two-Face for maximum tension, especially in the scene where Harvey gets his face disfigured with acid (Loeb wisely opts for Bruce to be in the courtroom disguised as a spectator rather than in full-costume like many versions of Two-Face’s origin has him).

Which leads us to the ending; one that is still talked about and debated with regards towards the logic of it. In the end it is revealed that Alberto Falcone, the timid son of “The Roman” and one of the victims of the Holiday killer, was the murderer after Alberto resurfaces to kill off a rival mob boss that had made a deal with the police to testify against Alberto’s father. After Alberto is arrested, Harvey Dent (now disfigured and going by the name “Two-Face”) leads a lynch mob of just about all of Batman’s enemies to locate “The Roman” on the one year anniversery of the first “Holiday” murder. Harvey shoots “The Roman” dead and then proclaims to both Batman and Commissioner Gordan, in a by-the-way manner as he is led off to jail, that the “Holiday” murders were committed by two people. As Gordan and Batman try to decipher what their former friend said (with it ultimately being agreed upon that Two-Face was referring to the fact that he murdered “The Roman” on Halloween, making him “Holiday” in the sense of that aspect of the killer’s profile) we are greeted with a three page epilogue that turns the entire story on it’s head (as if having one of the murder victims turn up alive and claiming responsibility for 11 murders wasn’t shocking enough).

The epilogue reveals that Holiday was really Gilda Dent, who committed the first three “Holiday” murders as part of an elaborate scheme to destroy the Falcone syndicate so that Harvey could spend more time with her and start a family without having to deal with mob reprisals. She reveals that she gave up the killing business after realizing that Harvey himself had snapped and “murdered’ Alberto in retaliation for an attempt on Gilda’s life. And given Alberto’s survival and decision to resume the Holiday killings himself in his bid to obtain his emotionally distant father’s approval, Gilda is in the clear since no one would suspect the shy district attorney’s wife (though we are given the impression, given Two-Face is the one who tells Batman and Gordan about Holiday being two people, that he knows too).